Changes of the vaginal microbiota in HPV infection and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: a cross-sectional analysis

• Published in: Scientific reports 2022-02, Vol.12 (1), p.2812-14, Article 2812
• Main Authors: Lin, Wenyu, Zhang, Qiaoyu, Chen, Yaojia, Dong, Binhua, Xue, Huifeng, Lei, Huifang, Lu, Yanfang, Wei, Xufang, Sun, Pengming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/326; 631/67; 692/4028; Alphapapillomavirus - genetics; Alphapapillomavirus - pathogenicity; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Cross-sectional studies; Cytology; Female; Genotyping; Human papillomavirus; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Infections; Lactobacillus - genetics; Lesions; Microbiota; Microbiota - genetics; multidisciplinary; Neuraminidase - genetics; Papillomavirus Infections - genetics; Papillomavirus Infections - microbiology; Papillomavirus Infections - pathology; Papillomavirus Infections - virology; Prevotella; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Uterine Cervical Dysplasia - genetics; Uterine Cervical Dysplasia - microbiology; Uterine Cervical Dysplasia - pathology; Uterine Cervical Dysplasia - virology; Vagina; Vagina - microbiology; Vagina - virology
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06731-5

This study aimed to explore the changes of the vaginal microbiota and enzymes in the women with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and cervical lesions. A total of 448 participants were carried out HPV genotyping, cytology tests, and microecology tests, and 28 participants were treated as sub-samples, in which vaginal samples were characterized by sequencing the bacterial 16S V4 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene region. The study found the prevalence of HR-HPV was higher in patients with BV ( P  = 0.036). The HR-HPV infection rate was 72.73% in G. vaginalis women, which was significantly higher than that of women with lactobacillus as the dominant microbiota (44.72%) ( P  = 0.04). The positive rate of sialidase (SNA) was higher in women with HR-HPV infection (P = 0.004) and women diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) ( P  = 0.041). In HPV (+) women, the α-diversity was significantly higher than that in HPV (−) women. The 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing results showed that Lactobacillus was the dominant bacteria in the normal vaginal microbiota. However, the proportion of Gardnerella and Prevotella were markedly increased in HPV (+) patients. Gardnerella and Prevotella are the most high-risk combination for the development of HPV (+) women. The SNA secreted by Gardnerella and Prevotella may play a significant role in HPV infection progress to cervical lesions.